All posts by: Magazine Editor

Creativity in the C-suite

As Kent Malwitz ’92, information systems, moved up through the world of technology leadership, he kept wondering if an MBA was in the cards. But what he found ultimately most useful and fulfilling, as someone already steeped in the CEO-world, was pursuing an M.F.A. in creative writing. Malwitz, who is the director of strategic partnerships at UMBC Training Centers—a nonprofit providing private workforce training in technology, cybersecurity, project management, and leadership development—nurtured this early creative emphasis as an IS student who wanted to explore the empowering and vulnerable world of writing workshops. Now, he corrals his curiosity and storyteller-instincts to become a more empathetic teammate and leader. 

Kent Malwitz
Kent Malwitz at UMBC Training Centers.

While I knew from a very young age that I loved technology, it wasn’t until my junior year at UMBC that I discovered that I also love to write. Working and playing with technology was natural to me as a kid, and since personal computers, modems, and bulletin boards were all fairly new to the public in the late ’80s, I was drawn to technology for exactly that reason—it was new. There was an element of discovery and creativity in trying to figure out how to do certain things with computers, leading me to pursue a degree in information systems at UMBC and a career in technology.

While at UMBC, I worked at a co-op with IBM, which allowed me to gain technical and business experience. I would drive to Gaithersburg daily from UMBC to provide technical support to IBM’s sales teams, and at certain times, I would take night classes alongside my 40-hour-a-week job at IBM, which gave me a heavy dose of the “real world,” as I tried to balance work, school, a social life, and a lengthy commute. The grind did not leave a lot of space for creativity.

After completing the required technical writing courses for my major, I felt a creative pull in me and acknowledged that my best chance of exploring that would be through writing, as I had shown no promise in the visual arts. I took a creative writing class and fell in love. It felt amazing to be doing something creative alongside my very technical work, and what I loved the most was sharing work with my fellow students and seeing and hearing their work—their thoughts and ideas, their fears. It made me feel extremely vulnerable, as well, but hearing my peers’ feedback was empowering, and I felt inspired by their talent. 

Working to extend the university’s mission

Back then, IBM was known for having an unofficial dress code—blue suit, white shirt, red tie. I conformed. The people were very nice, and it was a great introduction into the work world, but I knew that I wanted to work in an environment with a different kind of energy.

Kent Malwitz and friends during his time at UMBC
Kent Malwitz with intramural friends at UMBC.

I found myself drawn to smaller, entrepreneurial companies where you got to—and had to—do many things based on the limited resources available. I found these environments to be conducive to learning, problem solving, and creativity. Where there were many challenges, there were equal opportunities to think critically and creatively and to lead through them. I found great joy in creating elegant technical solutions to address our customers’ business needs. I loved trying to figure things out that had not yet been figured out, and as my career grew, I took on bigger and bigger projects and teams.

After 10 years of technology consulting, I learned about a non-profit that UMBC founded focused on the delivery of technical training—the UMBC Computer Certification and Training Center (UMBC CCTC—way too many Cs!). I was recruited by the president of CCTC at the time, Doug Kenzierski, my former instructor who connected me to IBM for my co-op. I got involved in 2003 to help lead business development efforts with organizations and government agencies to train their employees. We renamed UMBC CCTC to UMBC Training Centers and started winning contracts with regional businesses and key agencies in the intelligence community, the military, and civilian government.

In true grit fashion, UMBC was very early to grasp the concept of a research university that provides workforce development programs as well as having a related business entity that extends the mission of the university to new audiences. Today, UMBC Training Centers is a significant provider of workforce training in technology, cybersecurity, project management, and leadership development, serving many individuals and employers in the region through our private training programs and our robust open enrollment schedule that reaches more than 10,000 learners a year.

Nurturing curiosity

Throughout my career, I often thought about pursuing an MBA, and while I know I would have learned a lot, I already had significant hands-on experience from leading business development at UMBC Training Centers and then later becoming the CEO. Instead, I realized what I really needed was to nurture my curiosity and interest in creativity. I thought that tapping into my own personal beliefs and values and becoming a better storyteller would help me become a more empathetic and more effective teammate and leader. 

After hearing from other UMBC staff who had gone this route, including Jenny O’Grady, the editor of this magazine, I applied for the Master’s of Fine Arts creative writing program at the University of Baltimore. In many ways, I was a fish out of water in the program, but I loved it. I was much older than most of the students, and I was working full-time as the CEO of UMBC Training Centers. I was the only one who would show up in a suit on many nights, but my classmates welcomed me. I delved into writing workshop after workshop.

“
I thought that tapping into my own personal beliefs and values and becoming a better storyteller would help me become a more empathetic and more effective teammate and leader. 

Kent Malwitz '92

Director of strategic partnerships at UMBC Training Centers

Just like when I was an undergrad, sharing my work with others and having their work shared with me was my favorite part of the program. I loved the feedback and the support—both giving and receiving. While I haven’t completed the M.F.A. program, I intend to and feel that I have already benefited from it greatly as a business person and as a leader. Thinking critically and creatively and being open minded and unafraid of the unknown has been a key factor in the growth of my career.

Full-circle all the way home

After 17 years at UMBC Training Centers, I was recruited to go work again for IBM, despite my concerns from my earlier experience working there as a student. I worried about how I would feel working for such a large, corporate organization after having been in a small, entrepreneurial environment for my entire career. I was there for 4 years and learned a lot—about corporate culture, about scale, and about leadership, and I was reminded about the critical nature of strategic partnerships. 

In August of this year I had the opportunity to return to my beloved UMBC and UMBC Training Centers in the capacity of director of strategic partnerships. Here, I intend to work collaboratively—and creatively—with our partners, UMBC being our most strategic partner, to scale up the impact we have on the communities we serve, including finding ways to allow UMBC students to more directly benefit from our offerings, and to make UMBC Training Centers no longer the best kept secret at UMBC.

The World Is (Finally) Watching

Packed and energized sporting arenas. Clinching the closing medal ceremony of the Olympics for the first time. Primetime broadcasts with viewership in the many millions—women’s sports are starting to get the time and attention they’ve deserved all along. 

At UMBC, our women athletes have been gathering championship rings and lifting each other up along the way. You’re invited to join the stands and cheer on these world-class Retrievers.

By Kara Newhouse

The women of the UMBC volleyball team stood at the edge of their home court with eyes toward the rafters. To the right of the American and Maryland flags hung two banners with black cloths draped over them. The home opener match of the 2024 season would start soon, but first, a bit of pomp and circumstance for the Retrievers who won the past four America East Conference tournaments.

A game announcer directed attention to a massive video screen which showed senior Mila Ilieva, economics, blocking a hit and clinching a 3-0 sweep of the Binghamton Bearcats in the 2023 championship. On the floor, current players grinned, reliving their victory as triumphant music kicked on. All eyes returned to the rafters and up went the black cloths to reveal two black and gold banners listing the volleyball team’s three regular season titles and four tournament wins.

On its way up, one cloth got stuck, hanging at an angle as the players turned for a photo and a crew in the rafters fixed it. Not the smoothest of unveilings, but it was perhaps reflective of the trajectory of women’s sports in this country, a path punctuated by moments of great promise—the passage of Title IX, packed crowds at the 1999 Women’s World Cup, Simone Biles and Katie Ledecky’s medal dominance at the Rio Olympics—but often regressing to the status quo as a “niche interest” ignored by investors and corporate broadcasters.

This year, however, the veil keeping women’s sports from mainstream popularity has finally lifted. The final game of 2024 NCAA women’s March Madness netted over 18 million average viewers—4 million more than the men’s final. At the Paris Olympics, the women’s marathon medals were given during the closing ceremony instead of the men’s for the first time. Professional leagues are smashing attendance records and making expansion plans. 

As a recent viral T-shirt declares: Everyone watches women’s sports. And Retriever athletics is full of women worth watching. In addition to volleyball victories, UMBC boasts four consecutive America East championships in softball. Swimming alumna Emily Escobedo ’17, finished third in the 200-meter breaststroke at NCAA championships as a Retriever and later won a world championship in the same event. The lacrosse team is coached by a hall-of-famer. Shot putter Cleopatra Borel ’02, was the college’s first national champion and competed in four Olympics for Trinidad and Tobago. That’s just what’s in the record books. At UMBC, student-athletes are also supported as teammates, scholars, and aspiring leaders. Are you watching with us?

It’s electric

For Kennedy Lamb ’20, English, the recent popularity of women’s sports is overdue. “It’s about time these women’s sports teams, especially at UMBC, get that attention,” said Lamb, who won an America East championship with Retriever softball in 2019. 

During her time as a student-athlete, Lamb experienced a similar change in viewership to what’s happening nationally. She remembers looking out from the diamond as a first-year student to see just a few parents. “We love the parents, but you always wish that maybe another sports team or maybe a friend or someone from your math class would show up,” she said. Over the ensuing years, as the softball team turned into a winning one, her wish came true. “By the time I was a senior, the hill was filled.”

Lamb got a reminder of how that felt when she attended a Washington Mystics game against the Indiana Fever, the team on which mega-popular Caitlin Clark plays. Both times the Fever came to Washington, the arena sold out. Lamb said her friends and family who are longtime WNBA fans recalled how they used to get cheap tickets to games with middling attendance. “Now it was this sought after activity. Tickets were expensive. And seeing the electricity in the stadium reminded me of the electricity 
 of being on the UMBC softball team,” Lamb said.

Clark’s celebrity drew large crowds across WNBA cities this year, but it wasn’t only the Clark effect bringing people in. The New York Liberty, for instance, averaged the second highest home attendance in the regular season with 12,700 fans. Five years ago, the Liberty’s home game average was 2,200 fans.

For Tiffany D. Tucker, UMBC’s new director of athletics, physical education, and recreation, the popularity of the WNBA and other women’s sports is payoff from decades of work by athletes, coaches, executives, fans, investors, and allies. It’s not that the product on the floor changed, but “sometimes people need an invitation,” Tucker said. “It’s as if they’ve been peeping in, and it’s like, ‘I want to be a part of it,’ and now everybody feels like they’ve been invited and that they’re a part of the team.”

As she dives into her new role, she plans to extend the same invitation for all to watch UMBC women’s athletics.

Top to bottom: Lyna
Beraich, Mikayla Bryant,
Lexi Tepper.
Top to bottom: Lyna
Beraich, Tiara Bellamy,
Lexi Tepper.

A relational environment

After the volleyball banner ceremony, Tucker sat at center court with President Valerie Sheares Ashby to watch the contest against 
Lehigh University.

“Let’s go, Serin! You got it!” the athletics director called as setter Serin Maden, an economics junior, stepped up for a serve.

A former basketball coach who once aspired to be an author and international speaker, Tucker’s voice carried easily over the cacophony of the crowd and thwacks of palms smacking leather.

“Let’s go, Jada!” she called shortly after Maden’s serve. “Let’s go, Aysia!” a few minutes later.

Tucker was less than four weeks into the job. Asked how many names she’d learned in those weeks, she exhaled. 
“I try to get them all, I try,” she said. Counting both men and women 
student-athletes, that’s almost 400 names. “I’m going team by team,” 
Tucker added with a deep laugh.

At once the mark of a good leader, Tucker’s effort is also a benefit of UMBC’s size. “When you’re a student-athlete at a smaller, mid-major institution, you may know the name [of administrators], or you may know where the offices are to certain resources,” Tucker said.

“These are the same people who are here to support our women’s sporting events. These are people who are readily there to help you, not that they’re not there at a larger institution, but because of the size of the institution, I think it’s a little bit more intimate and relational.”

UMBC Volleyball celebrated winning the last four America East Conference tournaments. Photo by Luna Siesko for UMBC.
UMBC volleyball celebrated winning the last four America East Conference tournaments. Photo by Luna Siesko for UMBC.

In the grind together

In the stands behind Tucker, a row of preteen girls got into the Retriever spirit, barking loudly to support the home team. Sporting shiny red jerseys, these girls were volleyball players from Shepherdstown Middle School in West Virginia, attending their first college game. Though the Retrievers lost, the match was “really fun” and “cool,” the girls said with big smiles afterward. Their favorite part? “The rallies,” according to one. “Yeah, the rallies!” another girl echoed.

A third player had a different thought. “The way they supported each other,” she said. “They huddled after every point and high-fived and cheered for each other.” At this, the rest of the tweens bobbed their heads in agreement and declared that they wanted to take that back to their own matches.

That kind of support cuts across sports at UMBC. “There’s this camaraderie when you’re all together, day in day out, waking up at 5:30 for practice,” said Lamb, who is the godmother to the child of one of her former softball teammates. “It’s one thing to have great friends who you see in your English class, but ultimately you don’t grind with them. Being a DI athlete is a grind. You have no choice but to lean on others. You can’t do it alone. And that’s a type of friendship that isn’t found everywhere.”

Left to right: Katana Nelson, Jada James, Tiara Bellamy.
Left to right: Katana Nelson, Jada James, Mikayla Bryant.

Aysia Miller ’24, biological sciences, knows something about grinding with teammates. She won four America East championships in volleyball with four different pathways to the trophy. Her first year, the Retrievers were the underdogs facing the heavyweight University of Albany. Her sophomore year, the team blew out everyone in conference play but struggled in the tournament. Her junior year, they started the season strong but hit a losing stretch midway. Her senior year was the magic one.

“It was just like everything was clicking, and it was honestly pretty perfect,” said Miller, who is now a master’s student in applied molecular biology. With an extra year of athletic eligibility because of COVID-19, Miller has the unusual opportunity to achieve a five-peat. But the team struggled at the start of the season, losing nine in a row.

After the Lehigh match, Miller said she and her teammates knew they needed to improve. “Ultimately, I do believe that culturally our team is in a good spot. We have each other’s backs,” she said. “No one is turning on each other, and we’re not blaming one another about losing, about not things not going our way. And it kind of all comes down to what are our values as a team, what’s important, and how we’re able to treat each other.”

Open doors

Shared values can be the difference between a thriving locker room and a toxic one. During the women’s basketball preseason, the team spent an afternoon defining and performing skits about the core values posted in their locker room: service, toughness, family, loyalty, commitment, and consistency.

Team bonding activities like that one, as well as movie nights, a trip to the state fair, and the thrill of competition are what motivated Riley Donahue ’24, political science, to stay for another year as a master’s student in public policy. As a transfer student, Donahue has experienced multiple sets of coaches. From her perspective, positive culture starts at the top, and she loves the tone set by Coach Candice Hill and her staff. “They want to make sure everybody’s OK, and they have an open door policy if you need to come and talk to them,” Donahue said.

“I want to fill the stands. I want women athletes to really feel their value and know that they are loved.”

— Tiffany D. Tucker, 
 athletics director

Hill isn’t the only coach with that policy. “By open door, I mean literally anyone walks through our door,” said Amy Slade, the women’s lacrosse head coach entering her 17th season with the Retrievers. “We could be meeting with a recruit, and someone walks in and we’re like, ‘Hey, what’s up?’”

Slade and her staff hold monthly “coaches’ corner” meetings with each player. The young women may discuss lighthearted topics, like their favorite TV shows. Or they may share serious matters, like a parent’s cancer diagnosis. In either case, Slade said her goal is not to solve their problems, but to validate emotions and offer mom hugs, tough love, or referrals to mental health professionals as needed. “We’re making time each month just for you. And I think that’s important,” said Slade, who was inducted into the National Lacrosse Hall of Fame in 2021.

While coaches keep doors open for student-athletes to come inward, the rest of the college opens doors to go outward and excel beyond their sports. Players and staff are proud that academics get just as much emphasis as athletics at UMBC. That’s what drew Donahue here from Auburn University as a junior. Right away, Donahue jumped into an internship fair that led to working on Brooke Lierman’s successful campaign for Maryland Comptroller. The following spring, she interned in the Maryland legislature for Delegate Cheryl Pasteur.

“It was a haul to Annapolis,” Donahue said, but she paid for gas with money she earns from NIL (name, image, likeness) deals. “It was really fun to sit in on judicial hearings, to walk through the Senate building …and I enjoyed being around it and helping draft bills, helping make scholarships for students.”

Donahue is president of UMBC’s Student Athlete Advisory Committee (SAAC) and the America East chair for the NCAA Division 1 SAAC. Eventually, she wants to be president of the United States. “This place challenges you academically, and that’s what I want. Because the career that I want to go into is not going to be easy,” she said.

“Just come and play”

The women's soccer team huddles on the field at Retriever Soccer Park. Photo by Jill Fannon, M.F.A. '11.
The women’s soccer team huddles on the field at Retriever Soccer Park. Photo by Jill Fannon, M.F.A. ’11.

Women’s sports have a long history at UMBC, thanks in large part to Linda “Louie” Sowers ’70, American studies. Sowers, who played volleyball in high school, arrived at UMBC in its inaugural 1966 semester. Looking around campus, she found something missing: women’s sports. So in her second year, she approached athletic director Dick Watts with a request to change that. “I was a little sophomore, and he was an intimidating person…so it took a lot of courage for me just to go in there and ask,” she recalled.

Five years before Title IX mandated equality of athletic opportunities among other things, many male athletic directors might have brushed off Sowers’ request. But according to Sowers, Watts handed her a piece of paper and asked her to get signatures of female students who wanted to play sports. If she gathered enough names, he would hire a volleyball coach.

Sowers took that paper to the cafeteria, located in one of the only campus buildings at the time. “I basically just, in between classes, went up and down all the tables and got as many girls as I could,” Sowers recalled. “I had girls that said ‘I’ve never played before,’ and I would say, ‘I don’t care. It doesn’t matter. Just come and play.’”

She collected 66 signatures, and Watts hired a volleyball coach that spring. The next fall, Watts added a women’s athletic director, plus field hockey and basketball teams. “Because we were such a small school…it was like this little core group of us that wound up playing all three sports,” Sowers said. More than 50 years later, she still attends Ravens games with one of those friends and keeps in touch with others by text and email.

Fill the stands

In Sowers’ day, spectators included just a few parents and male athletes. Even today, crowds tend to follow a team’s success. Teams that have yet to lift trophies said they’re still hoping to see more fans.

One misty September night at Retriever Soccer Park as the women’s team mounted a comeback win over Mount St. Mary’s, parents in slickers and some fellow student-athletes—including Miller—cheered from wet bleachers. One dad rang a cowbell after every Retrievers play. Center fullback Lauren Reid, psychology and visual arts, said she’s grateful for family support but wished more peers would show up.

Reid knows how it feels to put on her cleats for a packed house. Last June she traveled to soccer-mad Brazil as a member of the Jamaican women’s national team. When Brazilian legend Marta took the field, the energy shift was incredible, Reid said. “I think it would give us the same feeling here if our whole student body was showing up,” she continued.

Tucker, too, said she wants to see growth in crowds to mirror what’s happening at a national level: “I want to fill the stands. I want women athletes to really feel their value and know that they are loved.”

Tucker plans to personally visit rotary clubs, local churches, schools, and others to extend the invitation. She wants to saturate the community with her message about Retriever women’s athletics.

“We have some of the best scholars. We have some of the best athletes in the country right here on our campus, and they’re passionate about what they do. They’re very disciplined. And it’s fun. It’s action-packed. It’s right here in your backyard,” Tucker said.

Consider yourself invited.

Left to right: Jada James, Mikayla Bryant, Lauren Thompson, Aysia Miller, Grace Bruce, Tiara Bellamy, Claudia Llamas, Bruna de Padua, Jerzie Nutile, and Amy Slade.
Left to right: Jada James, Mikayla Bryant, Lauren Thompson, Aysia Miller, Grace Bruce, Tiara Bellamy, Claudia Llamas, Bruna de Padua, Jerzie Nutile, and Amy Slade.

Seeing with fresh eyes—50 years of the UMBC Photography Collections

Walking into the Albin O. Kuhn Library Gallery, you always know you’re going to see some well-curated photos and works of art, but the trove of images currently on the walls for Revisions: Celebrating 50 Years of the UMBC Photography Collections (closes December 15) are assembled as an remarkable representational sample of the nearly 3 million images that make up the UMBC archive.

Known today as one of the country’s premiere university collections of photographs, the Photography Collections had a modest but auspicious beginning. In 1974, the Baltimore lithographer and photographer Edward Bafford donated to UMBC Special Collections a remarkable early image by Arthur Stieglitz (1864–1946), a photographer widely credited with helping transform photography into a serious art form. Bafford’s gift coincided with the foundational purchase of more than 5,400 photographs by labor activist Lewis Hine that documented horrific child labor practices.

Over time, the Photography Collections at UMBC have expanded through purchases and gifts. One special acquisition stands out for its regional importance: In 2014, the collection received the photo archives of the Baltimore Sun, including more than 750,000 prints, negatives, and transparencies from the 1930s through the 1980s.

Housed in the Special Collections department of the Library, the collections are open to the public, and are widely used by scholars and photographers. An increasing number of images have been digitized for online viewing, available through the Library’s website.

Looking back at a half-century of collecting, the exhibition offered thematic groupings and visual juxtapositions of photographs from the nineteenth century to the present. Co-curated by Beth Saunders, curator and head of Special Collections, and Emily Hauver ’06, curator of the Albin O. Kuhn Library Gallery, Revisions asked viewers to approach the history of photography with fresh eyes. In this photo essay, Hauver offers her thoughts on a few stand-out images in the show.

Sun Rays—Paula, Berlin, 1889

Sun Rays-Paula, Berlin is a particularly apt founding image for a university collection; it was made when the great Steiglitz was himself a student, and could thus be viewed as a symbol of the endurance of formative educational experiences on the making of an individual’s personal and professional identity. UMBC’s Photography Collections were conceived of as a teaching tool through which budding photographers enrolled at the university can contemplate the elements of successful photographs through the close study of master prints.

Alfred Stieglitz (American, 1864–1946), Sun Rays—Paula, Berlin, 1889. Gelatin silver print, 1929. Gift of Edward Bafford, P74-07-001.

Alfred Stieglitz (American, 1864–1946), Sun Rays—Paula, Berlin, 1889. Gelatin silver print, 1929. Gift of Edward Bafford, P74-07-001.
Alfred Stieglitz (American, 1864–1946), Sun Rays—Paula, Berlin, 1889. Gelatin silver print, 1929. Gift of Edward Bafford, P74-07-001.

[Nishnabotna Ferry House], ca. 2001–2008

Stephen Marc, American, born 1954, [Nishnabotna Ferry House], ca. 2001–2008. Inkjet print. Stephen Marc Collection, Coll353-P001.

Bringing the past palpably into the present, this photograph by Stephen Marc utilizes digital montage to weave together elements from the landscape of slavery—in this case a site associated with the Underground Railroad, the Nishnabotna Ferry House, and an 1836 letter from a Mississippi slaveholder ordering shoes for the people he enslaved. The names of the enslaved, which appear to be marching along the path to freedom and a better future, memorialize both the individuals held captive and those who succeeded in escaping.

Ralph Gibson (American, born 1939), Elba, c.1983. Gelatin silver print. Gift of Carol A. Merritt, P93-14-004.

Ralph Gibson (American, born 1939), Elba, c.1983. Gelatin silver print. Gift of Carol A. Merritt, P93-14-004.

Ship Island, Miss. & 74th U.S. Colored Infantry, c. 1864

This composition comprises several photographs of Black Union soldiers and white officers and is embellished with hand-drawn elements. Posing for portraits during the Civil War— the first major conflict to be extensively documented through photography—allowed Black men to assert their newfound identity and freedom as soldiers. The person who made this composition sought to memorialize the patriotism of Black soldiers through the visual image, showcasing the commitment of these men to fight for their own liberation. The fact that the embellishments are incomplete draw a poignant, if unintentional, parallel to the unfinished business of achieving true racial equality in this country.

Gallery guests looking at framed images on the wall
green background

John Waters, 2013

What could be more “Baltimore” than John Waters? In this image, taken by Sam Holden, a Baltimore-based photographer who tragically passed away at the age of 44 in 2019, the filmmaker grins impishly at the camera while posing with a cherry pie.

Sam Holden (American, 1970–2014), John Waters, 2013. Cross processed chromogenic print. Sam Holden Collection, Coll255_IA-001.

Sam Holden (American, 1970–2014), John Waters, 2013. Cross processed chromogenic print. Sam Holden Collection, Coll255_IA-001.
A. Aubrey Bodine (American, 1906–1970), Marble Steps, 1954. Gelatin silver print. Gift of Mrs. A. Aubrey Bodine, P86-19-032.

Marble Steps, 1954

Row after row of white marble steps for which the city of Baltimore is famous are seen in this photograph by Aubrey Bodine, one of Maryland’s best-known photographers. The geometry and contrasting tones of the steps pair with Bodine’s meticulous composition to manipulate the viewer’s perception by drawing the eye down the block and giving the impression of depth that defies the flat surface of this photograph.

A. Aubrey Bodine (American, 1906–1970), Marble Steps, 1954. Gelatin silver print. Gift of Mrs. A. Aubrey Bodine, P86-19-032.

Ward 81, Oregon State Hospital, Salem, Oregon, 1976

This photograph by Mary Ellen Mark flips the typical script of looking at a photograph wherein the observer looks upon a passive subject. Here, the photograph appears to be looking back. Despite the visual distortion caused by the screen covering the door’s small window, the power of this woman’s gaze implores us to make a connection, challenging us to engage on a deeper level with her and, perhaps, with ourselves. It’s made all the more compelling knowing that it was taken on Ward 81, a women’s security ward of the Oregon State Mental Institution.

Mary Ellen Mark (American, 1940–2015), Ward 81, Oregon State Hospital, Salem, Oregon, 1976. Gelatin silver print. Gift of Andrew Cahan, P2013-32-001.

Mary Ellen Mark (American, 1940–2015), Ward 81, Oregon State Hospital, Salem, Oregon, 1976. Gelatin silver print. Gift of Andrew Cahan, P2013-32-001.

Unidentified photographer, Boy and dog, c. 1870s. Tintype. Library purchase, P78-120-006.

Boy and dog, c. 1870s

Our collections hold thousands of images of anonymous people. Here, a small tintype shows an unusual pairing—a Black boy with a dog—framed in a case. We don’t know his name or where the photo was taken, but we can date this image to the 1870s. As we gaze back into his eyes, we wonder: Who was he? What was his story?

Unidentified photographer, Boy and dog, c. 1870s. Tintype. Library purchase, P78-120-006.

Elba, c.1983

Mirrors, with which photographs have long been metaphorically compared, offer opportunities to extend the narrative possibilities of a photograph beyond what is in front of the camera to what is behind, beside and beyond. This photograph by Ralph Gibson is compelling because it elicits conflicting reactions at once: comfort with the familiarity of the subjects (a nose, mouth, hand, landscape) and unease with the disjointed way they have been assembled.  

Unidentified photographer, Boy and dog, c. 1870s. Tintype. Library purchase, P78-120-006

Unidentified photographer, Boy and dog, c. 1870s. Tintype. Library purchase, P78-120-006.
Emily Hauver ’06, curator of the Albin O. Kuhn Library Gallery, and Beth Saunders, curator and head of Special Collections, worked together to comb through the university’s extensive collections to display a stunning representation of what is available in the archives. 

Emily Hauver ’06, curator of the Albin O. Kuhn Library Gallery, and Beth Saunders, curator and head of Special Collections, worked together to comb through the university’s extensive collections to display a stunning representation of what is available in the archives.

By Emily Hauver ’06 and Thomas Moore

Meet a Retriever—James Atsaides ‘71, psychology, Founding Four member and planned giving donor

Meet James Atsaides ‘71, psychology. Jim is a Founding Four member, a management psychologist, a former Alumni Association Board of Directors president, a former adjunct faculty member, and a planned giver to the university. In 2023, Jim established the Dr. James P. Atsaides Endowment through his life insurance policy. But, most importantly of all, Jim met his wife Ardell Terry through his philanthropic work with the university. Recently, Jim took some time to reflect on his UMBC story. Take it away, Jim!

Q: What is your WHY? What brought you to UMBC?

A: I graduated from Loyola High School in 1967, and it was already a “done deal” that I would attend the University of Maryland, College Park. My brother, Sam Atsaides, was already there, which made things easier for my parents. So off I went.

Sam was a year ahead of me, and for his first year, he lived on campus. When I went there, the plan was for us to get an apartment with a few other roommates—cheaper than living on campus. When school started, Sam helped me figure out how to enroll in classes and what classes to take. I decided to become a psychology major. 

James Atsaides in 1967 holding his diploma from Loyola High School.
James Atsaides in 1967 holding his diploma from Loyola High School.

College Park was huge. I got lost right away. I wasn’t in high school anymore. It was also a rude awakening to how big the classes were. I was used to having 20 students in a class, but now there were 100 – 300 students in the freshmen classes. It took me weeks to get used to the size of the classes and how impersonal the school was. 

Quickly, I realized that I was struggling. Sam was not a model student and always wanted to “wing it.” I couldn’t do that. Also, classes were hard, and I was also finding it difficult to make friends.

Year two at College Park was not much better—the same apartment, the same roommates, and an added twist. It was 1968 and the Vietnam War was getting a lot of attention. Students were staging “sit-ins,” and there were protest banners all over campus. I remember walking around campus wondering, “What am I doing here?” Adding to the chaos, Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was killed in 1968, leading to further unrest in the Washington, D.C., area.

After my second year of college, I decided I needed a change—a bold move. I decided to drop out of school. I mentioned to my parents that I needed some time off, and they understood what I was feeling. After a few jobs, I came back to my parents’ home in Catonsville and helped them at the family restaurant, Kibby’s. That’s where I first heard people talking about the new college just down the street, the University of Maryland, Baltimore County. So, I decided to check it out. 

I drove to UMBC and walked around. It had only been built within the last few years and there were only a few buildings. But I liked it. Even though there was lots of dirt and mud all around, it felt just right—I felt safe. It was a small campus, unlike College Park. The students were walking with smiles on their faces, and I felt like I could relate to them. I talked it over with my parents, and the next semester I enrolled at UMBC. 

Q: Tell us about what you loved most about your academic program. Was there anyone in the community who helped support you?

A: I decided to remain a psychology major and was impressed with all the courses that I could take at UMBC. I was like a kid in a candy store, just happy taking classes that were meaningful to me. The professors were also more approachable, and I started making friends. UMBC felt like home. 

One friend in particular, Stan Sack, was a tremendous help. He was a fellow psychology major and had been at UMBC from the beginning. We studied together and talked about classes and professors, and he helped guide me throughout my time at UMBC. Stan helped make my time at UMBC a happy experience. As a result, my grades improved. I felt excited and energized with what I was doing.

James Atsaides '71, psychology, and his older brother Sam in their graduation regalia in 1971.
James Atsaides and his older brother Sam in their graduation regalia in 1971.

The classes I was taking also offered lots of different experiences. During an archeology class, we took a trip to the Walters Art Museum. As part of a project in a sociology class, I got to interview a local brewery manager and learn how his business impacted the community. This was a particularly meaningful experience because I always enjoyed business. I think it gave me the drive to focus on industrial psychology years later. I also did an internship at Spring Grove State Hospital, which was very meaningful in a different way as it made me realize that I did not want to become a clinical psychologist! 

Q: What’s the one thing you’d want someone to know about the support you find here?

A: My time at UMBC went very quickly, but UMBC was my “savior” in a lot of ways. UMBC and the supportive community gave me the positive university experience I always wanted. UMBC also gave me direction and helped me figure out what I wanted to do with my life. I look back on my time as a UMBC student very fondly. However, it would not be my last go-around with the university. 

My time at UMBC made me realize that I enjoyed learning. So I just kept going to school. I completed a master’s program at Springfield College and a Ph.D. program at the University of Kansas.

Q: Can you tell us about your career in psychology?

A: My career took me from Kansas to Oregon to work with an international firm of management psychologists. In the early 1980s, my parents and family decided to build a hotel resort on the Greek island of Rhodes where my mom had a large parcel of land. For this to materialize, however, I had to leave my career and come back to Baltimore to take over Kibby’s, the family restaurant. So in 1983, my family loaded the Hertz rental truck and settled back in Catonsville with two very young girls. 

As a management psychologist, I took my own advice and hired a very good general manager to run the restaurant. This allowed me to start my professional practice in Baltimore in 1985. During this time, I met a fellow psychologist who became a very close and dear friend, John Martello. John was in a senior position at UMBC. We hit it off very well, and we spent much time talking about the work we were both doing, as well as our experiences at UMBC. John was instrumental in introducing me to the senior staff at UMBC. He introduced me to not only the head of the psychology department but also to the president of the university, Michael Hooker. 

I enjoyed getting back on campus. The campus had grown so much and was still growing!

“
I am grateful for my time at UMBC and have appreciated the many life-long opportunities it has given me as an individual and as a professional.

James Atsaides ‘71, psychology

Management Psychologist & Business Consultant

Q: What drives you to support this community?

A: In the late 1980s, President Hooker contacted me and asked me to join the UMBC Alumni Association Board of Directors. I happily accepted.

During this time, UMBC was promoting an insurance program that alumni could establish that would create an endowment for UMBC. President Hooker and Nell Savopoulous, director of development at UMBC, asked if I would participate. I felt such a close connection to UMBC, that I said “yes.” This was my alma mater after all. Now, I just had to figure out what and who my endowment would benefit.

Newspaper clipping from The Retriever Weekly announcing the establishment of the Dr. James P. Atsaides Endowment.
Newspaper clipping from The Retriever Weekly announcing the establishment of several endowments, including the Dr. James P. Atsaides Endowment.

As an industrial psychologist, I’m required to attend regular educational programs for continuous education (CE) credits. Students also regularly attend these conferences to make connections and gain exposure to the industry. However, these conferences are not cheap. My grandson, Dustin, for example, was graduating from Ithaca College and was honored with a request to present his senior research at a conference in Phoenix, Arizona. He was delighted with the opportunity but had to figure out how to cover airfare, lodging, and other expenses not included in his conference registration. Dustin quickly learned that there were no grants or scholarships available from the school to help him. So, he had to ask his parents and grandparents for money.

As my wife and I thought about Dustin’s situation, we both said, “Wouldn’t it be a good thing to have students apply for grants for this type of situation?” As we discussed this, we realized that we could focus the Dr. James P. Atsaides Endowment to help graduate students in need of funding to attend conferences.

I am grateful for my time at UMBC and have appreciated the many life-long opportunities it has given me as an individual and as a professional. Creating an endowment for students has been a wonderful way for me to say “Thank You” to the university and to help future students. And I am excited to share that we will award our first scholarship this academic year!

“Dr. Atsaides’ generosity to give back to both UMBC in general and our I/O Psychology program, in particular, is a testament to his professional values and his commitment to his alma mater,” says Dr. Elliot Lasson, professor of the practice and Director of UMBC’s I/O Psychology graduate program. “We look forward to using his gift to support our graduate students for years to come.”

Q. What has been your most meaningful connection at UMBC?

A: Through my work with the university, I was fortunate to meet Ardell Terry, campaign manager for UMBC. She was a positive addition to the fundraising group. Ardell and I married, and we have been together now for over 20 years. I thank UMBC for the opportunity to meet her as well. 

Ardell Terry, campaign manager for UMBC, and Kim Robinson, director of major gifts at UMBC.
Ardell Terry, campaign manager for UMBC, and Kim Robinson, director of major gifts at UMBC.

Q: How have you stayed connected with UMBC?

A: In 1990, I was asked to teach an upper-level class in organizational psychology and joined the UMBC community in a new capacity—adjunct professor. I greatly enjoyed teaching the class and did so for nine years.

Along with my time on the UMBC Alumni Board, President Hooker asked me to represent the university as a member of the University System of Maryland Chancellor’s Advisory Council. This was truly an honor for me to represent my alma mater and be part of this historic transition to a state-wide education system. 

In 1992, I was asked to be part of the selection committee for the next president of UMBC. As many of you probably know, this is the historic search that elevated Freeman A. Hrabowski, III, to the role of president, which he held until he retired in 2022.

In 1995, I was asked to take the position of president of the UMBC Alumni Board. This was a tremendous honor for me and allowed me to work closely with the administration. In my role as board president, I had the opportunity to be on stage while my younger cousin graduated from UMBC, which was really special.

UMBC continues to be close to my heart. It has been a large part of my life, and I am sure it will continue to be. I am honored to give back to the university in any way I can.

* * * * *

UMBC’s greatest strength is its people. When people meet Retrievers and hear about the passion they bring, the relationships they create, the ways they support each other, and the commitment they have to inclusive excellence, they truly get a sense of our community. That’s what “Meet a Retriever” is all about.

Learn more about how UMBC can help you achieve your goals.

‘Snow better’ way to enjoy the rest of fall at UMBC

It’s tempting to think that with Thanksgiving almost here the fall semester is over, but campus still has some events to keep you warm and cozy throughout the rest of the year. As you work on your final projects, we’ve lined up the perfect list of comforting activities to keep your mind relaxed!

Fuel your studies

You may be full of knowledge but we know you still have room for a snack! Come by The Commons Mainstreet at noon on Wednesday, December 4, to check out the Student Events Board (seb)’s boba bar! Connect with some friends over treats before you dive back into your books. 

Fold your worries away

The Initiatives for Identity, Inclusion, and Belonging (i3b) have been hosting hands-on origami workshops, and you can catch the last session of the semester.

Take a break from the semester’s stresses to create some snowflakes or any seasonal design. Origami Art Night is a peaceful space for you to relax, focus, and leave with a sense of accomplishment (and maybe a few paper masterpieces!) Stop by the Center for Well-Being, room 122, from 4 to 6 p.m. on December 4. 

A flyer that reads "Origami With Joyce Oct 2, Oct 16, Nov 13, Dec 4 – 4-6 PM Center for Well Being, 122 Join Joyce to discover the beauty of Origami in this hands-on workshop! Perfect for all skill levels. Unwind, get creative, and leave with your own handcrafted masterpieces. All materials are provided – just bring your creativity!"

Monologues and moments

A chance to experience the complexities of love and heartbreak? You don’t wanna miss this! Step into the Black Box Theatre for an evening of raw talent and emotion. The UMBC Theatre Department is presenting Down With Love: An Actor Showcase, directed by Joseph W. Ritsch. To witness powerful monologues and heartfelt scenes, grab your tickets now for December 6-8 (make sure to find the two free performances for students)!

Distract yourself with dance

4 dancers performing ballet on stage, wearing blue and purple costumes. Each move expressively and dynamically
Photo by Kiirstn Pagan ’11/UMBC

It’s a shame you can’t dance your troubles away, but you can watch others use their talents! Come and see the amazing work of students as they showcase their skills and talents! Prepare to be wowed by these delightful dancers on December 7 in the Proscenium Theater located in the Performing Arts and Humanities Building. 

All aboard the holiday express

The magic of the wintertime is now just a bus ride away! Join (seb) on December 8 for a trip to Baltimore’s Inner Harbor Christmas Village. From 12 to 7 p.m., enjoy live festive music and browse handcrafted gifts with the waterfront as your backdrop. Bundle up, bring some spending money, and get ready to be immersed into the holiday season.

It’s the most wonderful time of the year!

The winter semester may be ending soon but the fun doesn’t stop. Enjoy free hot chocolate, snacks, crafts, and create memories frozen in time. Join (seb) on the North Lawn of The Commons for a Winter Wonderland on December 10. Bundle up and bring your friends! 

The Interdisciplinary Science Building on UMBC's campus, surrounded by snow on the ground as the sun goes down

There’s snow place like UMBC to enjoy the rest of the semester! Whether you’re crafting in Commons or adventuring into Baltimore, these events will make this chilly season feel a little warmer.

By Mashaal Awan ’25 and JJ Gee ’25, UCM interns

The dance floor beckons—after 4 decades away, a dance major returns to her degree

In the fall of 1977, Jimmy Carter was president. NASA launched the Voyager I fly-by mission past Jupiter and Saturn. “The Mary Tyler Moore” show earned an Emmy for outstanding comedy, and the Atari 2600 gaming system went on the market. The Emotions’ “The Best of My Love” hit number one on the pop charts.

It was also the year Baltimore native Teresa Kearney entered UMBC as a dance major. But her route to a dance degree has been circuitous. She anticipates graduating in 2025.

From the classroom to the dance floor

At Walbrook High School in West Baltimore, Kearney danced under the direction of Beverly Marshall Johnson, who she still keeps in touch with today. As a young dancer, she performed regularly on TV channel 45’s “Soul City” (later renamed “Moonman Connection”)—a teen-dance show akin to the beloved “Soul Train” and “American Bandstand.” Kearney was accepted to UMBC with scholarships but, after two years, she heeded the call of Hollywood and decided to take a chance on professional dance opportunities on the West Coast.  

A collection of black-and-white photographs of Teresa in various elegant dance poses. These pictures are laid out on a dark surface. Sunlight comes in through large windows, which gives an artsy effect due to the geometric shadows the appear across the photos. Towards the center and behind some photos is a headshot of a younger Teresa, the only picture in color.
Teresa Kearney’s early days of dance.

 By 1979, Kearney and her dance partner were regulars on the competitive social dance circuit. “We were getting really popular, my dance partner and I,” she says. “We got a chance to go to Hollywood and be on ‘Dance Fever’ and compete from state to state, city to city. We made our living in dance for a long time.” 

Kearney held onto the goal of a UMBC degree for decades as life intervened. In between, she took on acting roles, was an instructor for LaBlast Fitness under Louis van Amstel of “Dancing with the Stars,” graduated from the Broadcasting Institute of Maryland for air talent for radio and TV, including an FCC license, sold insurance and real estate, and helped put her nephew through medical school, to name a few of her jobs and activities. “Then my mother, Lillie Kearney, passed away three years ago. She was also a dancer, and I thought this is the time for me to go back to college,” she says. “It was on my bucket list.”   

Keeping the standard

Wearing black dance attire, Teresa Kearney stands by the ballet barre in a dance studio. Her hand gently rests on the rail. She faces the camera and smiles warmly. Sunlight comes in through the large windows next to her.

As a long-time professional dancer—who never actually retired—Kearney continues to challenge herself by learning new techniques and styles. And she’s worked hard to re-train her body after decades dancing in heels on Latin and social dance circuits. “I’m still learning,” she says. “There’s a contemporary African dance class required now for all dance majors. For a two-and-a-half-hour class, it’s very energetic. And even though I’m 65, we all have challenges in that class,” she notes of her younger classmates.

Ballet instructor Alison Crosby could see Kearney was working hard, and says, “Teresa made it easy for me to keep the standard of the course, because she asked for no changes, asked for nothing to be different.” Plus, by showing up on time, preparing her body with gentle stretches to warm up her muscles and feet, and finding her place at the barre, Kearney modeled the appropriate dancer’s discipline that is expected in professional classes and rehearsals. 

“Her experience in dance is wide and professional,” Crosby adds, “and she modeled the discipline and respect for coming to ballet class.” As an instructor, Crosby noticed how easily Kearney connected with her much younger classmates. “Teresa was involved with even the first-years. They all saw Teresa with great respect.”

In fact, Kearney shares that her classmates in the dance program often seek her out for advice or just a listening ear. She’s noticed that these students face far more self-doubt and pressures than she did when she was a student in the 1970s.

A group of dancers in black attire, including Teresa Kearney, balance on one leg in a bright dance studio. Each dancer holds their raised knee with both hands while maintaining poise and focus.
Kearney, back, center, practices with her classmates in the Dance Cube.

“Last semester, I was talking with a group of students,” Kearney recalls. “We were overwhelmed with classes and how hard it is. I said, ‘Wait a minute. We’re here getting a degree….We’re here to learn even when it’s hard.’” 

“Once in a while,” Crosby says, “I’ll ask a student to show something as a positive model for the rest of the class. I asked Teresa…she just was dancing and using her eyes and her head so beautifully—everything she’d learned through her dance life. It’s still in her—that artistry through all the years and her different careers—her artistry has just stayed with her.”

By Lisa Traiger

Meet a Retriever—Matthew Levy ’00, M.S. ’08, emergency response professional

Meet Matthew J. Levy ’00, M.S. ’08, emergency and disaster health services (EDHS), who has dedicated his career to Maryland communities. His expertise, as a physician of emergency medicine and former paramedic, has made him indispensable in the most challenging national, state, and local emergencies. Matthew was part of an emergency response team that spent 10 days in New York City, assisting in the relief efforts following 9/11. In 2015, he received the Silver Medal of Valor from Howard County Fire and Rescue Services for his role as the second tactical medic to arrive on the scene at the Columbia Mall shooting in January 2014 then transitioned to being the on-scene medical director. In 2017, he was named Emergency Medical Services Physician of the Year by the Maryland Chapter of the American College of Emergency Physicians. Take it away, Matt!

Q: Briefly introduce yourself. What’s one essential thing you’d want another Retriever to know about you?

A: I began my studies at UMBC in 1996, enrolling in the Emergency and Disaster Health Services (EDHS) program. I earned my bachelor’s degree in 2000 and my master’s in 2008 while finishing my residency training as an emergency physician at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. I now serve as EDHS’s medical director for the paramedic program, the very department that helped me become the clinician and leader I am today. I am also an associate professor in the Department of Emergency Medicine at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. 

Matthew J. Levy with a group of medical students in scrubs stand around a hospital table teaching about emergency disaster and health systems
Matthew J. Levy, center, in the lab with students. (Image courtesy of Levy)

Q: What are some of the ways you have brought leading-edge practices to Howard County?

A: In 2016, I was part of the team that launched one of the nation’s first county-wide Stop the Bleed programs in Howard County. This is a national initiative designed to foster resilience and improve patient outcomes by empowering everyday people to recognize and treat life-threatening hemorrhages, which are the leading cause of preventable death in trauma patients. In 2023, I led the implementation of the Whole Blood Program in Howard County, which improves outcomes for critically ill and injured patients suffering from shock by implementing Maryland’s first ground-based EMS blood transfusion program. This program brings life-saving whole blood to the scene of the most critical patients to help give them precious time to get to the hospital for further stabilization.

Q: Tell us about someone in the community who has inspired or supported you, and how they did it.

A: I feel incredibly fortunate to have met so many people at UMBC who have shaped my life and career—from faculty and friends to colleagues and coworkers, specifically, I’d say Dwight Polk, Bill Hathaway, Dr. Rick Bissell, Dr. Jeff Mitchell, Dr. Bruce Walz (all from EDHS), and Dr. Joel Liebman (chemistry). However, the most impactful person has been Dr. J. Lee Jenkins, my wife, whom I met while we were both EDHS undergraduates. We dated through medical school and were married when I was in residency. She is also a physician and a faculty member in the Department of Emergency Medicine at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine.

“
I genuinely love taking care of people and helping them. Whether that’s one-on-one as their doctor (or previously as their paramedic) or now as someone responsible for entire EMS systems, the path I’ve chosen…has allowed me to…improve outcomes from emergency medical situations.

Matthew J. Levy ’00, M.S. ’08

EDHS

Q: What is the one thing you’d want a potential student to know about the support you can find at UMBC?

A: At UMBC, we take pride in striving for excellence in everything we do. Being part of the UMBC community means contributing to something greater than oneself. Through leadership, service, teaching, and research, UMBC is making a positive impact on the world. My UMBC education provided an exceptionally strong basis in the sciences, combined with amazing training in leadership, project management, research, and teaching skills. All of these have helped me to achieve success in my career.

Matthew J. Levy teaching about emergency and disaster health systems
Levy teaching an EMS class. (Image courtesy of Levy)

Q: Tell us about what you love about your academic program.

A: That’s easy… it’s the people of the EDHS department. This department is one of UMBC’s best-kept secrets. It has produced EMS leaders, clinicians, educators, scientists, and practitioners who have played a pivotal role in pioneering, innovating, and redefining the delivery of prehospital care both locally and nationally.

Q: Why did you choose emergency medicine as a career path? What do you enjoy most about it that has kept you working in this field?

A: This passion has led me to many opportunities. In addition to my work at UMBC and Johns Hopkins, I am also the medical director of Howard County Fire and Rescue, the regional medical director for the Maryland Institute for Emergency Medical Services Systems, the tactical physician with the Maryland State Police and Howard County Police, and the founding commander of the Maryland-1 Disaster Medical Assistance Team. 

Matthew J. Levy stands with three other emergency first responders
2015 Howard County Medal of Valor recipients. (l-r): John Butler, former fire chief for Howard County, Will Huber, lieutenant at Howard County Government, Levy, and Lonnie Robbins, former chief administrative officer at Howard County Government. (Image by Maryland Institute for Emergency Medical Services Systems)

Q: What advice do you wish you had received as an undergraduate EDHS student, particularly given the rapid changes in healthcare over the past few years?

A: Healthcare isn’t an easy path, but it’s one of the most noble professions and promises a rewarding career. However the journey will be long, so always believe in yourself, and always be your biggest fan and supporter. Surround yourself with the people you aspire to be like and always strive to improve yourself. This is your life to live so be sure to take the time to enjoy the journey along the way. But, don’t enjoy it too much…hard work does pay off! You’ll look back one day, maybe, 10,15, or 20 years or more later, and realize how far you’ve come.

* * * * *

UMBC’s greatest strength is its people. When people meet Retrievers and hear about the passion they bring, the relationships they create, the ways they support each other, and the commitment they have to inclusive excellence, they truly get a sense of our community. That’s what “Meet a Retriever” is all about.

Learn more about how UMBC can help you achieve your goals.

Meet a Retriever—David M. Williams, M.S. ’02, author and scholar-practitioner of the “Science of Improvement”

Meet David M. Williams, M.S. ’02, emergency health services (EHS) management, a scholar-practitioner of the “Science of Improvement,” and a co-author of Quality as an Organizational Strategy: Building a System of Improvement. With 25 years of experience in quality improvement, he has worked with leaders and teams worldwide to develop people’s abilities to make rigorous, results-driven improvements and adopt quality as an organizational strategy. Take it away, David!

Q: What’s one essential thing you’d want another Retriever to know about you?

A: I advise leaders worldwide to use the science of improvement to improve processes, products, and services. My experience in organizational systems began when I was a paramedic and got my master’s in EHS management at UMBC. My education led to me becoming an ambulance system expert and an internationally respected improvement advisor. I have a Ph.D. in organizational systems from Saybrook University. 

David Williams speaking to a crowd on the Science of Improvement.
David M. Williams speaking at the Institute for Healthcare Improvement’s National Forum on Quality Improvement in Health Care.

Q: What brought you to UMBC?

A: After I earned a B.S. in emergency medical services management from Springfield College, I was looking for a graduate program that would allow me to study from my home in Austin, Texas, while I worked full-time as a paramedic. I decided on UMBC because it had a unique virtual graduate program in EHS management that met all my criteria. 

Q: What do you love about your academic program?

A: As a student in the UMBC EHS program, I was introduced to literature and best practices that helped my professional development early in my career. The faculty comprised industry leaders, and their support and networks in the field helped me build my knowledge and skills. I credit my graduate work at UMBC as positioning me for career success.

“
I like seeing how UMBC has evolved. I first visited the campus in 1992, and it’s amazing to see how it has grown.

David M. Williams, M.S. ’02, EHS management

Scholar-practitioner of the Science of Improvement

Q: What’s the one thing you’d want someone to know about the support you find at UMBC?

A: I was a remote student in the early days of online degree programs. UMBC worked hard to create a robust academic learning experience. The faculty have served as lifelong mentors, and my peers made a community of learners nationwide and internationally.

Q: Who in the UMBC community has inspired you or supported you?

A: EHS adjunct faculty Mike Taigman has been a mentor and supporter since we first met in his class in the late ’90s. He was an expert paramedic and consultant. He encouraged me to publish my first paper and introduced me to the editor of an industry publication. He sponsored me to speak at my first national conference. He wrote a recommendation in support of my first leadership role as the chief quality officer of Austin EMS. He introduced me to healthcare improvement, which has been my career for more than 15 years. His mentorship and support have been a constant contribution to my career success. We still talk each week.

Williams and Taigman chatting at a table.
David Williams and Mike Taigman, UMBC faculty, at the National Association of EMS Physicians (NAEMSP) Annual Meeting.

Images above: David Williams and Mike Taigman, UMBC EHS faculty, at the National Association of EMS Physicians (NAEMSP) Annual Meeting.

Q: Tell us about your current job. What do you like most about it?

A: I am a self-employed advisor, teacher, and author—an internationally respected scholar-practitioner of the Science of Improvement. With 25 years of experience in quality improvement, I have worked with leaders and teams worldwide to develop people’s abilities to make rigorous, results-driven improvements and adopt quality as an organizational strategy. I also recently co-authored Quality as an Organizational Strategy: Building a System of Improvement. The book describes an approach to leading organizations based on W. Edwards Deming’s charge that leaders need a new theory of leadership and a strategy built on quality. The book defines quality as a strategy and describes a framework of five activities for leaders that can lead to both immediate results and long-term performance. 

Image right: Quality as an Organizational Strategy: Building a System of Improvement

Quality as an Organizational Strategy: Building a System of Improvement

* * * * *

UMBC’s greatest strength is its people. When people meet Retrievers and hear about the passion they bring, the relationships they create, the ways they support each other, and the commitment they have to inclusive excellence, they truly get a sense of our community. That’s what “Meet a Retriever” is all about.

Learn more about how UMBC can help you achieve your goals.

Meet a Retriever—Emma Swartling ’10, prenatal and pediatric chiropractor

Meet Emma Swartling ‘10, anthropology, prenatal and pediatric chiropractor and owner of Lumos Chiropractic in Tacoma, Washington. She was drawn to UMBC to experience the East Coast after being raised on the West Coast. Emma combined her interests in cultural and biological anthropology, pre-medicine, and working with children to shape her career as a chiropractor. Take it away, Emma!

Q: What’s one essential thing you’d want another Retriever to know about you? 

A: Born and raised in the Pacific Northwest (PNW), I started college with the intent to major in pre-medicine but ended up falling in love with anthropology. I was fortunate to find a career that allowed me to combine many of my multiple interests by following the path to chiropractic. Chiropractic has allowed me to use many of the skills in empathy and understanding that cultural anthropology teaches, and biological anthropology offers insights into human anatomy and function. It was the Chesapeake Bay Retriever that initially sparked my interest into learning more about UMBC. I love dogs and spent my childhood involved with dog training and showing, as well as teaching younger children involved in the same program. This is how I learned I enjoy working with children.

Q: Tell us about your current job. What do you enjoy most about it?

A: I am a prenatal and pediatric chiropractor and own my practice in Washington state. The best part about my work is being part of the village that supports people during the huge transition periods of pregnancy, postpartum, and childhood.

a woman lounges in a chiropractic office

Q: Tell us about your primary WHY, and how it led you to UMBC.

A: What brought me to UMBC was the beginning of my love to travel and explore. After finishing the first two years of college in my home state, I decided to transfer to the East Coast to visit a part of our country that I had never seen. The initial reasons UMBC stood out are superficial: Maryland was a central location to explore north and south along the East Coast; the Maryland State flag is amazing; and most importantly, I wanted to say I went to a school where the mascot is a unique dog breed like the Chesapeake Bay Retriever!

I wanted an adventure and to try something new. I can honestly say, when my airplane landed at BWI in the dead of winter, I started to question my decision. Coming from the lush, always green PNW it looked like I was about to land in a brown and desolate land. I grew to appreciate the seasons while in Maryland and was awed by the abruptness of changes in weather. My first semester was timid—I was finding my footing and trying to discover my place. There were other students and professors who helped me make the most of the next three semesters, who helped me step out of my comfort zone and learn more about myself. I love the small community of UMBC, the ease in moving around a campus that felt both big and compact. 

Pictured left: Emma in a treatment room at her chiropractic practice, Lumos Chiropractic

Q: Tell us about the people who helped you grow at UMBC and how they helped shape your next steps.

A: UMBC helped to shape “my why.” I really enjoyed learning from many of the professors in the anthropology department, in particular a former professor, Seth Messinger, who taught many of my favorite courses including a course on Medical Anthropology. Anthropology courses that combined the study of other cultures and their medicinal practices were particularly engaging to me. I began to imagine my future career—what direction would anthropology take me?

My first semester was timid—I was finding my footing and trying to discover my place. There were other students and professors who helped me make the most of the next three semesters, who helped me step out of my comfort zone and learn more about myself.

Emma Swartling ’10

After graduating from UMBC, I took some time to travel and consider my career opportunities. It was when my chiropractor cousin suggested I come listen to a talk hosted by a chiropractic school that I began to consider it as a career. The presenters shared about their unique experience opening a chiropractic clinic abroad, living in a country other than their own, and interacting with and helping a small community that I started to put the pieces together. I could combine my many interests: cultural anthropology and working with different people, cultures, populations, pre-medicine, and biological anthropology by working with bodies, studying the human form and its function, and be able to work with children, support childhood development, and help to grow a healthier community. 

Q: What’s your favorite part of being a part of Retriever Nation?

A: I really appreciated UMBC’s focus on academics and on inclusion. Also, I found an amazing group of people at UMBC who were kind, generous, and fun in the fraternity of Phi Mu. Some of those friendships led to future travel and experiences that helped to shape my career choice.

* * * * *

UMBC’s greatest strength is its people. When people meet Retrievers and hear about the passion they bring, the relationships they create, the ways they support each other, and the commitment they have to inclusive excellence, they truly get a sense of our community. That’s what “Meet a Retriever” is all about.

Colonialism’s legacy has left Caribbean nations much more vulnerable to hurricanes

Written by Farah Nibbs, assistant professor of emergency and disaster health systems at UMBC

Long before colonialism brought slavery to the Caribbean, the native islanders saw hurricanes and storms as part of the normal cycle of life.

The Taino of the Greater Antilles and the Kalinago, or Caribs, of the Lesser Antilles developed systems that enabled them to live with storms and limit their exposure to damage.

On the larger islands, such as Jamaica and Cuba, the Taino practiced crop selection with storms in mind, preferring to plant root crops such as cassava or yucca with high resistance to damage from hurricane and storm winds, as Stuart Schwartz describes in his 2016 book “Sea of Storms.”

The Kalinago avoided building their settlements along the coast to limit storm surges and wind damage. The Calusa of southwest Florida used trees as windbreaks against storm winds.

In fact, it was the Kalinago and Taino who first taught the Europeans – primarily the British, Dutch, French and Spanish – about hurricanes and storms. Even the word ‘hurricane’ comes from Huracán, a Taino and Mayan word denoting the god of wind.

But then colonialism changed everything.

A man in white suit, broad-rimmed hat and what looks like a cane lounges against a bag of cotton beneath tropical trees while two people with dark skin work in a field. A map of the island is also on the card. colonialism
A French advertising card from around 1900 depicts colonial power in Guadeloupe, with a trader sitting comfortably among sacks of cotton, cocoa and coffee while islanders work in the field. Universal History Archive/Universal Images Group via Getty Images

I study natural disasters in the Caribbean, including how history molded responses to disasters today.

The current disaster crisis that the Caribbean’s small islands are experiencing as hurricanes intensify did not start a few decades ago. Rather, the islands’ vulnerability is a direct result of the exploitative systems forced upon the region by colonialism, its legacies of slave-based land policies and ill-suited construction and development practices, and its environmental injustices.

Forcing people into harm’s way

The colonial powers changed how Caribbean people interacted with the land, where they lived and how they recovered from natural hazard events.

Rather than growing crops that could sustain the local food supply, the Europeans who began arriving in the 1600s focused on exploitative extractive economic models and export cash crops through the plantation economy.

They forced Indigenous people off their lands and built settlements along the coast, which made it easier to import enslaved peoples and goods and to export cash crops such as sugar and tobacco to Europe – and also left communities vulnerable to storms. They also developed settlements in low-lying areas, often near rivers and streams, which could provide transportation for agricultural produce but which became flood risks during heavy rains.

A large passenger plane approaches an island where houses built right to the water's edge are damaged from a recent hurricane.
Homes built to the water’s edge in Saint-Martin, an overseas collectivity of France, were devastated when Hurricane Irma hit in 2017. Helene Valenzuela/AFP via Getty Images

Today, more than 70% of the Caribbean’s population lives along the coast, often less than a mile from the shore. These coastlines are not only highly exposed to hurricanes but also to sea-level rise fueled by climate change.

Legacies of slave-based land policies

Colonialism’s legacy of land policies has also made recovery from disasters much harder today.

When colonial powers took over, a few landowners were given control of most of the land, while the majority of the population was forced onto marginal and small areas. The local population had no legal right to the land, as the people did not possess land certificate titles or deeds and were often forced to pay rent to landlords.

After independence, most island governments tried to acquire land from former plantations or estates and to redistribute it to the working class. But these efforts, mainly in the 1960s and ’70s, largely failed to transform land ownership, improve economic development or reduce vulnerability.

One colonial legacy perpetuating vulnerability to this day is known as crown land, or state land. In the English-speaking Caribbean, all land for which there was no land grant was considered property of the British crown. Crown land can be found in every English-speaking island to this day. https://www.youtube.com/embed/YTckM-cNeII?wmode=transparent&start=0 How colonial powers controlled the Caribbean over time.

For example, in Barbuda, all land is vested in the “crown in perpetuity” on behalf of Barbudans. This means that an individual born on the island of Barbuda cannot individually own land.

Instead, land is communally owned, which limits access to the credit and development opportunities that were sorely needed to reconstruct the island after Hurricane Maria in 2017. Most Barbudans were unable to insure their homes because they had no title deeds to their property.

This and other collective land tenure systems created by colonialism places Caribbean residents at greater risk from a variety of natural hazards and limits their ability to seek financial credit for disaster recovery today.

The roots of poor construction

Vulnerability to disasters in the Caribbean also has roots in post-slavery housing construction and subsequent failures to institute proper building codes.

After emancipation from slavery, freed people had no right nor access to land. To build houses, they were forced to lease land from the former enslavers who at a whim could terminate their employment or kick them off the land.

This led to the development of a particular type of housing structure known as chattel houses in countries such as Barbados. These houses are tiny and were constructed in a way in which they could be easily taken apart and loaded onto carts, should the residents be forced out by their former enslavers. Many Bajans still live in these houses today, although quite a few have been converted to restaurants or shops.

Chattel houses are still used as homes in Barbados. Shardalow via Wikimedia, CC BY

In Aruba, Bonaire and Curaçao, owned by the Dutch, slave huts were built along the coast, on land not suitable for agriculture and easily damaged by storms. These former slave huts are now tourist attractions, but the colonial patterns of settling along the coast has left many coastal communities exposed to hurricane damage and rising seas.

The vulnerability of such houses is not only a result of their exposure to natural hazards but also the underlying social structures.

Slave huts were built on the coast in Bonaire, where they were vulnerable to storm surge. Leslie Ket via Wikimedia, CC BY-SA

In many islands today, poorer residents can’t afford protective measures, such as installing storm shutters or purchasing solar-powered generators.

They often live in marginal and disaster-prone areas, such as steep hillsides, where housing tends to be cheaper. Houses in these areas are also often poorly constructed with low-grade materials, such as galvanized sheeting for roofs and walls.

This situation is made worse by the informal and unregulated nature of residential housing construction in the region and the poor enforcement of building codes.

Due to the legacy of colonialism, most housing or building standards or codes in the Commonwealth Caribbean are relics from the United Kingdom and in the French Antilles from France. Building standards across the region lack uniformity and are generally subjective and uncontrolled. Financial limitations and staffing constraints mean that codes and standards more often than not remain unenforced.

Progress, but still a lot of work to do

The Caribbean has made progress in developing wind-related building codes to try to increase resilience in recent years. And while damage from torrential rain is still not properly addressed in most Caribbean building standards, scientific guidance is available through the Caribbean Institute for Meteorology and Hydrology in Barbados.

Individual islands, including Dominica and Saint Lucia, have new minimum building standards for recovery after disasters. The island of Grenada is hoping to guide new construction as it recovers from Hurricane Beryl. Trinidad and Tobago has developed a national land use strategy but has struggled to use it.

Construction standards can help the islands build resilience. But work remains to be done to overcome the legacy of colonial-era land policies and development that have left island towns vulnerable to increasing storm risks.

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article and see more than 250 UMBC articles available in The Conversation.

Pagers and walkie-talkies over cellphones—a security expert explains why Hezbollah went low-tech for communications

Written by Richard Forno, principal lecturer in computer science and electrical engineering, UMBC

Electronic pagers across Lebanon exploded simultaneously on Sept. 17, 2024, killing 12 and wounding more than 2,700. The following day, another wave of explosions in the country came from detonating walkie-talkies. The attacks appeared to target members of the militant group Hezbollah.

The pagers attack involved explosives planted in the communications devices by Israeli operatives, according to U.S. officials cited by The New York Times. Hezbollah had recently ordered a shipment of pagers, according to the report.

Secretly attacking the supply chain is not a new technique in intelligence and military operations. For example, the U.S. National Security Agency intercepted computer hardware bound for overseas customers, inserted malware or other surveillance tools and then repackaged them for delivery to certain foreign buyers, a 2010 NSA internal document showed. This differs from accessing a specific person’s device, such as when Israel’s Shin Bet secretly inserted explosives into a cellphone to remotely kill a Hamas bombmaker in 1996.

Hezbollah, a longtime adversary of Israel, had increased its use of pagers in the wake of the Hamas attack on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023. By shifting to relatively low-tech communication devices, including pagers and walkie-talkies, Hezbollah apparently sought an advantage against Israel’s well-known sophistication in tracking targets through their phones.

pieces of a destroyed electronic device
The second wave of explosions in Lebanon involved walkie-talkies. AP Photo

Cellphones: The ultimate tracker

As a former cybersecurity professional and current security researcher, I view cellular devices as the ultimate tracking tool for both government and commercial entities – in addition to users, criminals and the mobile phone provider itself. As a result, mobile phone tracking has contributed to the fight against terrorism, located missing people and helped solve crimes.

Conversely, mobile phone tracking makes it easy for anyone to record a person’s most intimate movements. This can be done for legitimate purposes such as parents tracking children’s movements, helping you find your car in a parking lot, and commercial advertising, or nefarious ends such as remotely spying on a lover suspected of cheating or tracking political activists and journalists. Even the U.S. military remains concerned with how its soldiers might be tracked by their phones.

Mobile device tracking is conducted in several ways. First, there is the network location data generated by the phone as it moves past local cell towers or Stingray devices, which law enforcement agencies use to mimic cell towers. Then there are the features built into the phone’s operating system or enabled by downloaded apps that may lead to highly detailed user tracking, which users unwittingly agree to by ignoring the software’s privacy policy or terms of service.

This collected data is sometimes sold to governments or other companies for additional data mining and user profiling. And modern smartphones also have built-in Bluetooth, Wi-Fi and GPS capabilities that can help with locating and tracking user movements around the world, both from the ground and via satellites.

Your phone contains many sensors that make it useful – and easy to track.

Mobile devices can be tracked in real time or close to it. Common technical methods include traditional radio direction-finding techniques, using intelligence satellites or drones, deploying “man in the middle” tools like Stingrays to impersonate cellular towers to intercept and isolate device traffic, or installing malware such as Pegasus, made by Israeli cyberarms company NSO to report a device’s location.

Nontechnical and slower techniques of user tracking include potentially identifying general user locations from their internet activity. This can be done from website logs or the metadata contained in content posted to social media, or contracting with data brokers to receive any collected location data from the apps that a user might install on their device.

Indeed, because of these vulnerabilities, the leader of Hezbollah earlier this year advised his members to avoid using cellular phones in their activities, noting that Israel’s “surveillance devices are in your pockets. If you are looking for the Israeli agent, look at the phone in your hands and those of your wives and children.”

Researchers have shown how these features, often intended for the user’s convenience, can be used by governments, companies and criminals to track people in their daily lives and even predict movements. Many people still aren’t aware of how much their mobile devices disclose about them.

Pagers, however, unlike mobile phones, can be harder to track depending on whether they support two-way communication.

Why go low-tech

A pager that only receives messages does not provide a signal that can facilitate tracking its owner. Therefore, Hezbollah’s use of pagers likely made it more challenging to track their operatives – thus motivating Israeli intelligence services’ purported attack on the supply chain of Hezbollah’s pagers.

Using low-tech tactics and personal couriers while avoiding the use of mobile phones and digital tools also made it difficult for the technologically superior Western intelligence agencies to locate Osama bin Laden for years after the 9/11 attacks.

In general, I believe the adversary in an asymmetric conflict using low-tech techniques, tactics and technology will almost always be able to operate successfully against a more powerful and well-funded opponent.

A well-documented demonstration of this asymmetry in action was the U.S. military’s Millennium Challenge war game in 2002. Among other things, the insurgent Red forces, led by Marine General Paul van Riper, used low-tech tactics including motorcycle couriers instead of cellphones to evade the Blue forces’ high-tech surveillance. In the initial run of the exercise, the Red team won the contest in 24 hours, forcing exercise planners to controversially reset and update the scenario to ensure a Blue team victory.

Lessons for everyone

The preference for terrorist organizations like Hezbollah and al-Qaida to avoid using smartphones is a reminder for everyone that you can be, and likely are being tracked in various ways and for various purposes.

Israel’s purported response to Hezbollah’s actions also holds a lesson for everyone. From a cybersecurity perspective, it shows that any device in your life can be tampered with by an adversary at points along the supply chain – long before you even receive it.

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article and see more than 300 UMBC articles available in The Conversation.

Meet a Retriever—Jennifer Matthews ’02, Catonsville bookstore owner

Meet Jennifer Matthews ’02, mathematics, owner of Growing Minds Bookstore, an independent bookstore in Catonsville. As someone who started as a chemistry major and later switched to mathematics, Matthews wants everyone to know that you can be good at math AND reading!

Q: What brought you to UMBC?

A: I first came to UMBC as a pre-med chemistry major. I quickly realized that my parents’ dreams of me being a doctor were not mine and what I really liked the most was helping my friends with their math classes. So I switched majors to become a high school math teacher. 

Q: Tell us about the people who helped you grow at UMBC, and why their HOW made such a difference to you.

A: I had a lot of support at UMBC. I started working at the Alumni House where I did clerical tasks like updating the database (everything was done by hand back then!) as well as helping to staff alumni events as needed. Angela Sanford was my boss at the time and she became a dear mentor and friend to me during those years, and a few years after I graduated. She encouraged me to succeed in my classes but to also be a well-rounded person. Barbara Bourne was my first education professor and she is a lifelong friend now. She helped guide me through the interview process and first years of teaching. We still keep in touch and she is my biggest supporter! I lived on campus and was surrounded by a lot of art majors, and I helped a lot of them through their math classes. They may not know it, but they were my first students! 

Q: What’s the one thing you’d want someone to know about the support you find here?

A: UMBC will always welcome you back home! The campus is a beautiful representation of what diversity and intellect can do together. You will always want to recreate the environment of UMBC in your life outside of campus. 

Q: Tell us about your current job. What do you like most about it?

A: I’m the owner of Growing Minds Bookstore here in Catonsville. I love the freedom of owning my own business, interacting with families, and of course, talking books! 

“
UMBC will always welcome you back home! The campus is a beautiful representation of what diversity and intellect can do together.

Jennifer Matthews '02, mathematics

Owner of Growing Minds Bookstore

Q: Tell us about someone in the community who has inspired you or supported you, and how they did it.

Barbara Bourne has mentored me through so many stages of life and been my biggest cheerleader, no matter what stage I am in! 

Q: What’s your favorite thing about being part of Retriever Nation?

That when you meet another alum you both smile big! 

* * * * *

UMBC’s greatest strength is its people. When people meet Retrievers and hear about the passion they bring, the relationships they create, the ways they support each other, and the commitment they have to inclusive excellence, they truly get a sense of our community. That’s what “Meet a Retriever” is all about.

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